Increase of the sectoral minimums will be 6.25% and can be much higher than $ 25, depending on the salary

Behind the increase in the worker’s unified basic salary from $ 400 to $ 425, which represents an increase of 6.25%, which was notified through the Ministerial Agreement MDT 2021 276 last Tuesday, it was also established in the same document that the minimum wages of the 21 sectoral commissions, “For this time” will rise by the same percentage.

Thus, all wages would have an increase of 6.25%, without differentiating the behavior of the productivity of the sectors and the increase will be $ 25 or more, depending on the minimum wage in force for each branch of activity.

For example, in the area of farming, there is currently a range between $ 401.41 and $ 411.49. These items would rise $ 25.08 and $ 25.73 respectively. However, in the oil area there are higher salaries, with which the increases are greater. The current range is at $ 490.85 to $ 698.87. In these cases, the salary increase reaches $ 30.6 and $ 43.6, respectively.

In telephony, for example, the current salary range goes from $ 715.93 to $ 1,805.23, which with an increase of 6.25% leads to a rise of $ 44.7 and $ 112.8, respectively.

According to Fabián Jaramillo, labor lawyer, the decision to increase both the basic salary and the sectoral minimums does not has complied with the standards issued in previous ministerial agreements, such as MDT 185 2020 of September of that year and MDT 249 2020, of November of the same year, signed by the Minister of Labor at the time, Andrés Isch.

In general, the previous agreements established that if an agreement is not found between the worker and employer parties, the Government will decide the increase but based on indicators such as inflation. In this sense, for Jaramillo, it would have been important for the Government to repeal the previous agreements, before issuing the 276 in recent days, which according to his appreciation did not have a technical basis, but rather the issue of the commitment to comply with what was offered in the campaign.

In any case, the government said that it did make a technical calculation related to projected inflation, projected growth, and sustained decline. These are parameters recommended by the International Labor Organization (ILO).

The ministerial agreements speak of 21 sectoral tables, but they always name 22 types of productive groups. These are agriculture and plantations; livestock production; fishing, aquaculture and mariculture; mines, quarries and deposits; transformation of food (includes agro-industry) and industrial, pharmaceutical and chemical products. There are also industrial production of beverages and tobacco; metalworking; textiles, leather and footwear; industrialization of fish, shrimp and other marine and aquaculture products; as well as vehicles, automobiles, bodies and their parts.

Finally there are sectors such as technology, hardware Y software (includes Tics); electricity, gas and water; construction; marketing and sale of products; tourism and food; Transport and logistics; financial services; service type activities; teaching activities; health activities and community activities.

I agree with you Decrees establish differentiation in salaries according to the hierarchy of the position that can go into five divisions from A to D: leadership, supervision, operation, assistance and support. Each of these segments with certain divisions, depending on the branch of activity.

The President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, announced on December 13 that due to the lack of agreement within the National Labor and Wages Council, and in fulfillment of the campaign promise to increase the salary to $ 500 until the end of his term, he ordered the Council to implement a first increase of $ 25.

Ecuador’s salary was the third highest in Latin America, after Chile (457) and Uruguay (424). However, it would have become the second highest with $ 425, if one considers that Uruguay rose to $ 499, while Chile fell to $ 399 (due to the devaluation of the currency). (I)